7 month old stopped babbling

[Yas1362]

Hi. My son will be 7 months old in less than a week. Although he was born two weeks and 5 days earlier so not sure what age should I consider when it comes to the milestones. Anyways I’m quite worried since he has stopped babbling. He had started saying “mamama” and some other consonants since 5.5 months but it’s almost two weeks or more that he has stopped. He started a week ago blowing rasberries and he did that for a week but then stopped that as well. So now it’s just silence or some vowels here and there very occasionally. Aren’t they supposed to babble more and more after 6 months? He has also started flapping his hands when excited at the same time! So it all scares me!!

positive things are that he has always had good eye contact also during feeding. He smiled intentionally since day 10 and still is a smiley baby. But laughs only when tickled.
physically seems on the track although he doesn’t crawl yet. Rolled from back to tummy since four months and tummy to back at five months.

has anyone had such an experience with their baby?
Thanks

Flapping hands is very normal at this age and wouldn’t be something to worry about at this age at all.

If he’s stopped babbling, is he working on a new skill, like crawling, or is he in pain with something like teething? Babies and young DC will often pause a skill whilst they concentrate on acquiring a new one

Thanks for the reply! He has been trying to seat unaided and still practicing army crawl (but not yet good in that). I think actually it’s more than two weeks that he has stopped babbling!!
we go to music class and it seems that he gets so excited he moves constantly his arms and legs! I pay attention to other babies and they seem so relaxed!!

If you really are worried you could do these two assessments:

8 month Ages & Stages

and the 6 month Social & Emotional Ages & Stages.

Try to remember with the first one that hes at the very beginning of the age range and that they aren’t expected to score in the white in every section. Scoring in the greet in a couple of areas is perfectly normal.

With the second assessment, any score over 30 will need to be discussed with your HV.

It might also be worth hanging on to the completed assessments so that you can compare them when he has his 13 month check

*12 month check

Thanks. I did the six month old questionary. It’s all white but just one question “is your baby’s body relaxed?” Not sure what to answer. He is relaxed as long as not exposed to new environments or people. His father and brother were a couple of days away and when they were back today he was completely shaking seeing them and stift. It was quite scary! I think he was quite happy seeing them angain but didn’t know how to express. But still it sounds strange! After a while he was relaxed again.
It was almost the same in the music class the other day. He got so excited and his whole body was moving not shaking though like today.

he also started to have stranger anxiety when he turned 6m. He wil literally cry if someone he doesn’t know hold him or get so closed to him. Not sure it’s a good sign or bad sign. Before that he used to small to all the strangers.

*smile

So what was his overall score on the Social & Emotional Ages & Stages?

My son's babbling was on and off from 5m-10m. He was simply too busy crawling, usually away from me at top speed.

He was just a LOT more interested in doing stuff for himself than chatting to us about it.

I'd say his speech is mildly above average now at 2, albeit less clear than others and not a chatty superstar.

If I choose z for that question as well then it’s 0!

Otherwise 5!

Thanks for the reply. I really hope he starts babbling soon! I’m just so worried!

Ok so the Social & Emotional assessment isn’t technically a screener for ASD but if he is scoring that low I wouldn’t be worried in the slightest.

A lot of things you mention, like him getting excited and moving his arms and legs is just normal baby behaviour.

is there a reason that you’re so focused on ASD? Does it run in the family or has your Algorithm on SM been trained to show you more and more of this kind of thing?

And are you generally anxious about health matters or is it just this that you’re concerned about?

Yes there is actually a reason. My eldest has high functioning autisme. That is the reason I’m so focused on my baby.

Ah ok, that would explain why you’re so focused

How was your DC1 when they were a baby? Are there any similarities?

my Ds1 is 11 now. So it was quite some times ago and at that time I was not focused on his behavior or the milestones at all. He was a very smily happy content baby. Also with good eye contact. Always interacting and engaging. Loved when I did funny things and would laugh a lot. I never even thought about autism. He was well fidgety as far as I remember at this age. Would kick a lot when excited. I’m not sure about arm flapping at this age but later around 18m he had definitely arm flapping.
the only things that were quite alarming when I look back was that he was very silent. He never cooed and sometimes I got comments about how calm he was. Later on the babbling was also limited. Never mama or dada! He was verbal but it was not communicative. He couldn’t call me mama or call his father. Didn’t know how to use I or you in sentences. These were the things I taught him self. But very intelligent and learned everything very quickly. And now very advanced academicly. And speaks two languages fluently.
so ja at this point I see some similarities but I also see differences.

Hat sounds pretty similar to my DC2 who now has a diagnosis of AuDHD. Honestly though at this age you’re going to drive yourself nuts if you keep focusing on ASD as it’s very unlikely you’ll get a referral anytime soon.

I would do this simple progress checker though. You’ll need to do the 6 month one. If it says that he “needs some support” they will send you some resources by email I think and you can also book an appointment with one of their SaLTs.

When you’ve done that, I would call your HV and say that you’re concerned about ASD as your DC1 has it and can she do a check at 10 months instead of 12?

The two assessments you’ll need at 10 months are:

12 month Social & Emotional Ages & Stages

and the 10 month Ages & Stages.

Don’t look at them yet though as you’ll drive yourself mad, a lot can change in a short pace of time with babies 🙂

Let us know how you get on with the progress checker from Speech & Lamguage UK

Thank you very much. I appreciate your response and advice! Xxx

No problem at all. Have you managed to do the progress checker from Speech and Language UK yet?

Yes I did. Seems on the track just the question about “does he coo to himself or gurgle or say for example ba/ba?” . He does coo and he had it from the beginning but he doesn’t gurgle also babbling is my concern now. As I said he used to say lots of “mama” “mamama” from 5.5 to a little bit older than 6 and then he stopped saying that. He blew rasberries as well and he also had the phase of pterodactyls sounds. some I missed with my other son when I look back.
im just so worried about babbling!😣

I also heard him once in his crib saying “papa” (how we call father in the country we live). It was like he was practicing saying that. It happened only once though.

So what was the result on the progress checker? Did it say he needed some support? Also, how many languages is he exposed to?

If I choose no for that specific question it will be yes he needs support regarding the speech. But I’m a bit skeptical because this was the only question in the speech area and it includes all cooing, babbling and gurgling. He does coo or make bird sounds but the rest no.
He is exposed to two languages and sometimes three.

you mentioned that you have also a child with high functioning autism. May I ask if you have also other child? Did you see similarities or differences?

I hate myself when I compare my baby to my first. As I love my first into pieces. But when I see that autism has affected him enough to make it difficult for him to make friends despite that he truly wants that or in other ways then I wish that my baby will not have it. That he will be ok. Oh god it’s so difficult. 😣 I try to stay positive but I need to admit that something is not right. He is kinda getting more quiet every day. He used to have a real back and fourth conversation with us. Something I never experienced with my older son as a baby. Since 6.5m it’s like everything is changing!😭

I’m not the OP but came across this thread as my 6 month old is cooing lots and says “gaga” but no other consonants besides g. Anyways, I did the online questionnaire and it’s not great. Unless you answer yes to every single question, it will always just recommend some support. Even if you answer Not Sure. I answered yes to every question, but answered Not Sure to the question about different cries (and that could very well just be the fact that I’m not attentive enough to try to distinguish between them… I just give her the boob for everything lol). And even then, it still recommended support.

I agree that the process checker can be a bit overly cautious but I think that if you’re just answering not sure in obe question it might be worth doing the progress checker again in a few weeks?

If your LO still is scoring as “needs some support” then you could talk to one of the SaLTs at Speech & Language UK and maybe do the age appropriate Social & Emotional Ages & Stages